24 Jan (NucNet): A recent £86m (€97m, $115m) investment from the government has put the UK Atomic Energy Authority in a position to forge partnerships with domestic companies and “take their expertise to the world”, the government said in a statement.
The government’s investment in the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, announced earlier this month, will be used for two centres of excellence – the Hydrogen-3 Advanced Technology (H3AT) facility and the Fusion Technology Facility (FTF).
H3AT will research how to process and store tritium and will with the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) under construction at the Cadarache nuclear site in the south of France.
FTF will develop thermal hydraulic tests for components under fusion conditions.
Ian Chapman, UKAEA chief executive officer, said the two facilities would help make commercial nuclear fusion a reality. He said: “We are extremely well placed – through using these processes in JET and the new facilities – to support the supply chain in its bidding for a wide range of projects.”
JET is the Joint European Torus, the world’s largest and most powerful tokamak and the focal point of the European fusion research programme. Designed to study fusion in conditions approaching those needed for a power plant, JET is the only device operating that can use the deuterium-tritium fuel mix that will be used for commercial fusion power.
Mr Chapman said: “The main purpose of H3AT is to looking forward to ITER. We want to partner with UK industry to make sure they win these contracts. This will allow the R&D to have other benefits as well as fusion, while these facilities will also help to train the next generation of people who will operate ITER.”
The government said this week that more than 80 delegates from across the UK nuclear sector heard details of multi-million-pound contracts from Iter that they can target with help from the UKAEA after the government’s recent investment in the UKAEA at Culham.
